Rakesh Bedi is one of our finest actors, a fine comic talent who's still remembered for his roles in Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi among other works. So to see him playing a lonely father of five is a little depressing. No, we aren't implying that to be a father of five girls is sad news, it's just that we would rather see Bedi put to better use than drape a shawl around him and worry about his daughter's futures.
Sony's latest offering, Shubh Vivaah as the name suggests, is a tepid saga about girls and marriage. In this case, you have five daughters without a mother (thank God for that or you can imagine the typical Hindi serial mother greying her hair worrying about kaun betiyon se shaadi karega) living with their father who's given them the right sanskaar and have dreams about marriage. The oldest one we are told has been "rejected" thrice (isn't there a better word here?) while the second one has been "chosen" by their father's dead friend's orphan son as his would-be wife, the other three girls are there to stretch the soap time five days a week.
At the time of writing, the hero of the serial has gone to 'see' the eldest daughter but his mother and a know-it-all chachi (whose arrival on the scene is accompanied by a husky 'chachi chachi Jugni chachi' background score) prefer the second daughter saying their son is the eldest in the family and so it would be inauspicious for him to marry the eldest girl in of the family. It's something they could have found out before they went to see her in the first place but since it's a daily soap, viewers are forced to go through some needless drama. Meanwhile, the 'boy' is far from sanskaari as he has a rollicking relationship with a married woman and surprise, he has his mother's blessings for the same!
The show is going to be as melodramatic as they come and each girl's shaadi will have the father going through several panic attacks. Just when we were going to laud Sony for giving us Parvarrish, Crime Patrol and Bade Achche Lagte Hain (though the latter has succumbed to some really OTT moments), we get a Shubh Vivaah, a dated, regressive yarn!
The performances are nothing to write about. Eijaz Khan as the two-timing hero seems tailor-fit for the part while Neha Janpandit as the protagonist looks disinterested, as if being one among the five girls is already weighing her down. Your heart goes out to Bedi for having landed a part which could have been happily bypassed.
Verdict: Watch it if you must.
Cricket
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